More than 30 middle school, high school and college teams of student scientists will compete April 10 and 11 in the National Aeronautic & Space Administration (NASA) Student Launch event near the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

Every January for four weeks MIT students, faculty, staff and alumni have the chance to partake of "independent activities period" where they get to try out lectures series, how-to sessions, contests and other activities that strike their fancy. This January, a joint program offered by the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and Lincoln Laboratory gave participants an opportunity to learn how to program autonomous algorithms for driving cars without human intervention.

Through a partnership with Pearson, the University of California at Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering is growing its online engineering degree programs, adding specializations in Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering (Power Systems), Environmental Engineering Systems (Water), Materials at the Nanoscale, and Mechanical Engineering.

The 22 institutions of higher education associated with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning will get the funding to train and mentor graduate students preparing to become college instructors themselves.